Dynamic crushing behaviour of agglomerated cork

• Agglomerated cork can be an alternative to polymeric foams used in structures.
• Contact forces and strain increment when the impact-energy/thickness ratio increases.
• Displacement shows the same behaviour observed in the two previous variables.
• Increasing the specimen thickness reduced the contact force for same impact energy.
• The absorbed energy of the cork specimen does not depend on its thickness.

For reasons of energy saving and pollution reduction, there is a growing interest in the development of lightweight structures manufactured with materials of natural origin and recyclable. Agglomerated cork is a mixture of natural cork and an organic binder, and can be considered an alternative to polymeric foams used in structural applications with a high capacity of energy absorption. One of these applications involves impact-absorbing elements in vehicles, which are subjected mainly to dynamic compressive loads. In this work, the dynamic crushing behaviour of agglomerated cork was experimentally studied, analysing the influence of the specimen thickness on the energy-absorption capacity, contact force, displacement, and strain. Dynamic crushing tests with specimens of four different thicknesses were performed in a drop-weight tower. An increase in the maximum contact force, displacement, and strain was observed when the impact-energy/thickness ratio increased. For each specimen thickness a linear variation of the maximum displacement and energy absorbed with the impact-energy/thickness ratio was found. It was observed that the energy absorbed by agglomerated cork did not depend on the specimen thickness, but only on the impact energy.